Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the finding by the Tourism Alliance that there was an 83 per cent decline in EU student group visitors to the UK in 2022; what estimate they have made of the financial impact on the UK economy of this decline; what assessment they have made of the reasons for this decline; what plans they have (1) to return to policy of accepting ID cards in place of passports for educational group visits, and (2) to reduce the costs of visas for participants in such visits who require them.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
All visitors from outside the EU are expected to hold a passport (and visa where necessary) and those visiting from EU countries are now expected to do the same.
In implementing this policy, a full impact assessment was carried out which can be found at the following link: Impact Assessment (publishing.service.gov.uk). We will continue to monitor the ongoing impact of these documentary requirements.
At the summit in Paris on 10 March 2023 the UK committed to ease the travel of school groups to the UK by making changes to documentary requirements for schoolchildren on organised trips from France. Further details will be announced in due course.
Fees for immigration and nationality applications are kept under review however, there are no plans to reduce the level of fees charged. Income from fees plays a vital role in our ability to run a sustainable migration and borders system and reduce the burden on UK taxpayers.
Asked by: Chloe Smith (Conservative - Norwich North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to increase the efficiency of the passport renewal process.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
His Majesty’s Passport Office remains fully resourced following its significant increase of over 1200 staff between April 2021 and last summer. With the continued introduction of process improvements, HM Passport Office has processed more than two million applications across January and February, with over 99.5% of standard UK applications being processed within ten weeks and 95.5% being processed within three weeks.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to increase the efficiency of the passport renewal process.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
His Majesty’s Passport Office remains fully resourced following its significant increase of over 1200 staff between April 2021 and last summer. With the continued introduction of process improvements, HM Passport Office has processed over 2.3 million applications up to the week ending 19th March, with over 99.5% of standard UK applications being processed within ten weeks and over 94% being processed within three weeks.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many passport applications took longer than three weeks to process in (a) 2019, (b) 2022 and (c) the final quarter of 2019.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
In 2019*, 382,390 passports issued through standard UK or international services, which was 6% of the total printed, were from applications that had taken longer than three weeks. In the final quarter of 2019, 102,647 passports issued through standard UK or international services, which was 9.7% of the total printed, had taken longer than three weeks. The published processing guidance for standard UK applications at that time was three weeks, with the exception of adults applying for their first British passport who were advised that it took six weeks.
In 2022, 2,620,038 passports issued through the standard UK or international services, or 34.5% of the total printed, had taken longer than three weeks. However, no application in 2022 was subject to a three-week processing timeframe. With approximately 5 million people having delayed their passport application due to the restrictions upon international travel caused by COVID-19, this led to unprecedented passport demand in 2022. Since April 2021 the published processing guidance for all standard UK applications has been ten weeks.
Across January and February 2023, 95.5% of standard UK passport applications were processed within three weeks.
*The data held for 2019 is in working days, and the data held for 2022 in calendar days. This includes an assumed delivery period once the passport is printed (two days in the UK, seven days overseas).
Asked by: Lord Mann (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assistance they provide to migrants settling in the UK to obtain UK passports for UK-born babies.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
Where a foreign national settling in the UK wishes to obtain a passport for a UK-born child for whom they have parental responsibility, they may apply for a child passport through the normal range of available HMPO application processes.
His Majesty’s Passport Office will assess whether the child is a British citizen in accordance with the British Nationality Act 1981, which requires the parent to be settled in the United Kingdom when the child is born, and also provides an alternative mechanism for UK-born children to acquire British citizenship through registration. HMPO provides an enquiry service to assist customers making passport applications.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of passport applications that will need to be submitted between 15 March 2023 and the end of the year; how many applications there were in the same period last year; and whether she plans to amend staffing arrangements to meet the service delivery targets in place.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
With approximately 5 million people having delayed their passport application due to the restrictions upon international travel caused by COVID-19, the elevated demand for passports will continue throughout 2023.
HM Passport Office has processed more than two million applications across January and February, with over 99.5% of standard UK applications being processed within ten weeks and 95.5% being processed within three weeks.
Given the exceptional cause of this demand, the exact volumes and profile of when this will arrive is less predictable than in a normal year. The current expectations are that demand will be within 6.1 million and 7.1 million between the weeks ending 19 March 2023 to 31 December 2023. Between 15 March 2022 and 31 December 2022, HM Passport Office received 6,484,414 passport applications.
Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the time taken to (a) issue or renew passports, (b) arrange appointments to verify applicants’ identity and (c) respond to correspondence from hon. Members on the time taken to process applications.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
HM Passport Office has processed more than 1.67 million UK standard applications across January and February with a total printed output of 1.86 million. Over 99.5% of standard UK applications processed within ten weeks and 95.5% within 3 weeks.
Asked by: Lord Allan of Hallam (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many passport applicants were required to send their foreign passports to the Passport Office when applying for a UK passport; and what was the average time that foreign passports were held by the Passport Office before being returned to the applicant in (1) 2021, and (2) 2022.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The volumes and types of evidence received in support of British passport applications, and the timeframe that such evidence is retained by His Majesty’s Passport Office, is not held in a reportable format.
Obtaining this data would be at a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many passport applications took longer than three weeks to process in the final quarter of 2022.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Of the British passports issued in the final quarter of 2022, 134,551 were from standard UK applications that had taken longer than three weeks. This represents approximately 12.7% of the total passports printed under this service during that period.
The published guidance for processing applications under this service is up to ten weeks.
*The processing time includes 2-days for delivery of the passport to the customer.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many passport applications took longer than ten weeks to process in the final quarter of 2022.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
A passport is not issued until all checks upon an application are satisfactorily completed. A proportion of applicants will therefore not receive their passport within a guided processing time* due to the need for further information from the customer, or due to work to prevent passport fraud.
Of the British passports issued in the final quarter of 2022, 26,160 were from standard UK applications that had taken longer than the current published processing time guidance of ten weeks. This represents approximately 2.5% of the total passports printed under this service during that period.
*The processing time includes 2-days for delivery of the passport to the customer.